Men In Black: The Series

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If you want to see a laughably bad Game Boy Advance game, look no further than this one.

By Craig Harris

Contrary to popular belief, there are several instances that make the job of a game reviewer not so rosy. Playing Men in Black: The Series on the Game Boy Advance has to be considered one of the low points in my videogame career -- this game is downright abysmal in nearly every sense of the word. Though it does feel bad saying it so harshly since a handful of folks worked on the game for months, it's completely justified every time I return to playing the game. Men in Black is awful.

Features

Six levels

Multiple weapons

Password save

Only for Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance game, like the two Game Boy Color games before it, is based on the cartoon series that airs on the Kids WB network. In the GBA edition, you assume the role of Agents J and K, out to stop an evil alien invasion. This game has everything that makes a game bad -- horrible animation, limited controls, and gameplay design that's just downright unbearable when put into action. The intention, I'm guessing, is to create a game like Flashback using the Men in Black license, but the developers really needed to go back to the drawing board -- nothing clicks together in this game.

Let's first look at the animation -- this game has, without a doubt, the most laughable walk and run sequence ever created in a videogame. For some reason, the developers opted for a prerendered look for all of its characters, even though the game is based on a 2D cel-based cartoon series. The J and K characters animate like someone couldn't figure out where the joint controls were in their 3D Studio program. And just FYI, the two characters are identical except for a palette swap to make one look Caucasian, the other African American. Don't get me started on the hysterical death "sequence"...if anything, this game gets a point for how a terrible game can make you laugh with its badness.

But the character art is only half the story. The level layout and design is so bland and nondescript that it's incredibly easy to get lost in each of the game's levels, since the artists fail to see the need for important markings on the sides of walls. I found myself wandering all over the first level trying to figure out where I hadn't been just to advance further into the game. And since the game's trying to mimic the Flashback idea, levels have been laid out in "puzzle" fashion...but the developers obviously limited the game's control in order to make the game harder (hence "more challenging") to complete. For example, you can't jump left or right. Sorry, it's not in the game. Instead, you can leap up to specific ledges to reach other platforms...so, in other words, in many instances, you have to drop off a ledge just to gain access to a platform that's literally a simple jump away. This element boggles the mind, and makes the game that much more infuriating to play. The controls that you do have definitely don't help much, either -- shooting is a two button chore, requiring the use of both the R button (to draw the weapon) and the A button (to fire it)...and, while I could argue for this control scheme in some games, in MIB I couldn't figure out why it was necessary to force players to draw the weapon before firing it.

And the sound -- though there are a handful of "digital" effects in the game, the developers apparently have opted to go with the Game Boy Color sound chip for its music. Trust me, you've heard better tunes on the 8-bit handheld.

Men In Black: The Series

Play as either Agent J or Agent K in this faithful adaptation of the cartoon series. Make your way through and beyond New York City, battling the scum of the universe all the while. You'll use grenade launchers, freeze guns, and even the Noisy Cricket to put an end to the evil before it puts an end to you. Cool gadgets like night vision glasses and alien visualization units will help, but dangerous environmental elements like slippery ice, zero gravity, and wind tunnels won't.

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The Verdict

I really hope that Men in Black isn't the start of terrible games that are sold based on the license that brands the awful game design. There is nothing in this game that makes me want to play it beyond this review. I'm done with it, for good...and don't say I didn't warn you. This Game Boy Advance game is majorly, incredibly bad with a capital MIB.